The White House Egg Roll, explained

(Image credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

published 10 April 2023

On Monday, April 10, thousands of American families will gather on the south lawn of the White House for the annual Easter Egg Roll, a long-beloved American tradition involving the president, the Easter Bunny, and hundreds of colorful hard-boiled eggs. Here's everything you need to know:

What are the origins of the Egg Roll?

Starting in the late 1800s, thousands of children with Easter Monday off of school began flocking to Washington, D.C., to partake in a particularly egg-centric activity: rolling hard-boiled eggs down the slopes of Capitol Hill, where they'd track whose could get the farthest without cracking. But as the fun grew in popularity over the years, it also took a noticeable toll on the Capitol grounds — in 1876, Congress passed the Turf Protection Law "to prevent any portion of the Capitol grounds and terraces from being used as play-grounds or otherwise, so far as may be necessary to protect the public property, turf, and grass from destruction and injury," History writes.

Two years later, President Rutherford B. Hayes agreed to open the White House Grounds on Easter Monday to host children looking to roll eggs in the nation's capital. Thus, the first official White House Easter Egg Roll was held on April 22, 1878, during Hayes' second year in office. "Since then, children have gathered annually on the White House South Lawn to roll eggs and participate in Easter activities," says the White House Historical Association. The event has grown to include celebrity appearances, Broadway performances, and balloons from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The Easter Bunny first made an appearance in 1979, "when a member of first lady Pat Nixon's staff donned a fleecy white costume" and "quickly proved a bigger star than the president in the eyes of some of the children," recounts History.

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The White House canceled the annual roll during both World War I and World War II, though Congress "permitted bygones to be bygones and agreed to host the event on Capitol Hill in 1942," per History. Then, "post-war food rationing measures and the subsequent renovation of the White House under President Harry S. Truman resulted in further cancellations." After a 12-year hiatus, President Dwight D. Eisenhower brought the tradition back to the Pennsylvania Ave lawn in 1953.

First Lady Jill Biden, a teacher for 30 years, is continuing with last year's "EGGucation" theme for this year's Egg Roll. About 30,000 people are expected to attend the festivities, which will include "a school house activity area, reading nook, talent show, field trip to the farm, picture day, a physical 'EGGucation' zone, a snack time tent and more," the White House said in a statement. Celebrity guests will include "former Olympic gymnast Dominique Dawes and actress Halle Bailey," who is starring as Ariel in Disney's live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, The Associated Press reports. To even further emphasize the punny education theme, NASA also "sent a souvenir wooden White House Easter egg to the International Space Station for the astronauts to help teach students about gravity," AP writes.

The American Egg Board will continue its long tradition of sponsoring the event, donating about 30,000 hand-dyed eggs from a North Carolina farm, Emily Metz, board president and CEO, told AP. While inflation and a bird flu outbreak drove egg prices sky-high over the past few months, Metz insists the board's donation is merely a fraction of the eggs produced annually in the United States. "It's a really important, time-honored tradition for our farmers to participate in," she said in an interview.

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Theara Coleman has worked as a staff writer at The Week since September 2022. She frequently writes about technology, education, literature and general news. She was previously a contributing writer and assistant editor at Honeysuckle Magazine, where she covered racial politics and cannabis industry news.